Patricia Highsmith … It’s fried eggs and bacon again.

Patricia Highsmith (1921 ~ 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her most famous novels include Strangers on a Train (1950) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955).

Patricia Highsmith, Paris, 1977

Writing was less a source of pleasure for her than a compulsion without which she was miserable. She wrote every day, usually for 3 or 4 hours in the morning, completing 2000 words on a good day.According to biographer Andrew Wilson, her favourite technique to ease herself into the right frame of mind for work was to sit on her bed surrounded by cigarettes, ashtray, matches, a mug of coffee, a doughnut and an accompanying saucer of sugar. She had to avoid any sense of discipline and make the act of writing as pleasurable as possible. Her position, she noted, would be almost foetal and, indeed, her intention was to create, she said, “a womb of her own.”

(Source: Daily Rituals (Mason Currey)

She was in the habit of having a stiff drink before she started to write and would also eat bacon and fried eggs for virtually every meal. It required the minimum of thought and planning, leaving her able to get on with the task in hand.